I wrote this tutorial on my own. Any
similarity to another tutorial is purely coincidental. I claim the copyright to
my tutorial. You are free to do whatever you please with what you make,
but please do not take my tutorial. Do not send the tutorial through
email. Only share my link.

This tutorial was created for
some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about PSP.
It is intended for beginners to learn how to create a new gradient file. If you have any questions, please feel free to Email me.

To do this tutorial you will also
need Paint Shop Pro. I wrote this with Paint
Shop Pro X, but the steps may also be done in any version.
You may download a free trial at Corel.

Remember to save as a psp file
often!

1. Choose gradient from
your material Properties palette, and set the gradient to Angle = 0, Repeats =
0. It does not matter what gradient you have in your picture.

2. Click
on the Edit button under the gradient picture.

3. We are going to create
a NEW gradient file, so click on NEW. (If you would like to change an
already existing gradient, click SaveAs, then follow the rest of this tutorial).

Note: When changing or creating gradients, always
start from a NEW or SAVE AS file. Never save changes directly to a
gradient you already have-- or you will not be able to undo it.

4. Give
your new gradient a name. Click Ok

5. Now in
the Types menu, click on your named gradient.

6. Now
look in the above picture. See the middle section called Gradient?
and the color bar? Click on the first color paint can (left end).
Just click on the can.

7. After choosing the color can, click on
the color box next to custom (the big one), and the color palette comes up.
Pick your color. Click ok.

8. Now
that first color can is the color I chose.

9. Gradients blend better
with the more color blends you put into it. So you will need to have more
than 2 color paint cans if you are going to be using more than 2 colors.
To ADD a color paint can to the color bar, WITH YOUR mouse, click close to
the bottom of the color bar. This adds a new paint can (circled).
Then click on that paint can, and then the custom color box and make it whatever
color you want.

10. Continue to add more color cans as needed, and making them the
colors you want to make them.

11. Once
you have all the color paint cans you want, you need to adjust the size of the
colors and the blending dots to help blend your colors. In the picture
below, You can drag left or right the color paint cans. This will
enlarge the color space or shrink it. So if I want a bigger white area in my
gradient, slide the white color paint can to the right; sliding it to the left
will make it smaller.

The dot (circled) above the color bar, slides the
blending between the two paint cans. Slide these left or right, until you
are happy with the blending.

12. The
last part to work with is the transparency. If you do not want any
transparency in your gradient, then skip this step! I wanted my gradient
to fade slightly towards the blue side (right side). So I clicked on the
right can, and THEN change the Opacity to whatever % you want. Try it.
Change it to 50% and you can see the gradient bar below the transparency bar get
semi-transparent. Adjust the transparency as you want it. If you do
not want any transparency, then change the Opacity to 100%.

13. When
you are done, click Close. It will ask you if you want to save changes,
click yes.

14. If you have PSP 8 or above, the gradient is saved in your
gradient folder of your PSP folder in MY DOCUMENTS. (in case you want to
share your file with everyone!)